LAFAYETTE WEST — Purdue basketball lost a game Thursday night, with Braden Smith’s potential game-winning 3-pointer echoing off the back of the rim.
No. 13 Michigan StateIt is Victory 76-74However, part of a series of losses over the past three months. No. 8 Boilermakers expect this season to be defined by what they accomplished when they shared the field with the other top teams in the country.
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Instead, the trend developed in the other direction.
“We’re where we are because we’re not playing to the best of our abilities sometimes — I don’t think for a total of 40,” Smith said. “We need to get to that point where for a full 40 minutes we can be really good. And we’re not there yet.”
The runway intended to facilitate this takeoff becomes a little shorter with each match.
On Dec. 6, with Iowa State owning Mackey Arena for an afternoon, Purdue faced a long timeline for improvement. Its next game, Sunday at Ohio State, will be played in March. There are three regular season games remaining, followed by the Big Ten Tournament, followed by the final NCAA Tournament in which the veteran senior starters will compete.
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The four home defeats are the most since 2019-20. This team had no NCAA Tournament design, much less championship aspirations.
The Big Ten’s three losses at home – and this fourth, against the Cyclones – create a collective weight on the season. They destroyed any chance of contending for the Big Ten championship. They could deprive the Boilers of a top-four seed in the Big Ten Tournament — rewarded with a triple bye to the quarterfinals — for a second straight season. Those losses could push them a step further down the NCAA Tournament seed list and, in theory, into more threatening matchups in each round.
However, the consequences should be of less concern than the cause. None of the losses came from a single cause, but all shared common denominators. Purdue tends to be successful, sometimes in key areas, but not enough to win.
This happened again on Thursday, somewhat surprisingly.
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Purdue exploited one of Michigan State’s greatest assets
Michigan State won on Thursday. Purdue has not conceded a victory. The Spartans overachieved in multiple ways and deserved to win in West Lafayette for the first time since 2014 – in eight games.
“We couldn’t have played much better,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. He called it the program’s best road win “in a few years.”
No one had outscored his team this season. Since the Sweet 16 victory over Mississippi last March, no one had done that.
The Spartans became the nation’s leader in defensive rebounding percentage. Although offensive rebounding was a weapon at times for Purdue, it was fair to expect a victory via other methods.
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Instead, the Boilermakers won on overall rebounds 27-25, including 8-6 on the offensive glass. This led to a 16-6 advantage in second chance points.
Purdue took an opponent’s primary strength and slapped them with it.
Except Michigan State still won points in the paint 40-32. Carson Cooper thrived inside in the second half. Jeremy Fears Jr. could drive into the Boilers’ coverage centers to attack the basket. The Spartans shot nearly 60 percent from the field after halftime.
“Before every game, we want to see what they’re good at,” Trey Kaufman-Renn said. “I thought we did our job rebounding.
“…What we didn’t do was we didn’t keep the ball in front of us when they were on ball screens or off the dribble. They got where they wanted to and after that it’s a little tough.”
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The loss of the offensive boards contributed to the losses of Illinois and Michigan. Winning them was important in the victories at Wisconsin and Nebraska. After taking a 13-0 advantage over IU – allowing just one offensive rebound for only the second time in program history – Thursday’s performance on the boards should have been the difference.
Instead, Michigan State gained the upper hand by further capitalizing on one of Purdue’s signature strengths.
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The Boilermakers rank in the top 20 nationally in turnover rate. CJ Cox and Gicarri Harris turned the ball over three times each in Big Ten play. Oscar Cluff only turned it over nine times.
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Purdue had gone 16 straight games without being outscored in points off turnovers. Matt Painter’s nightly goal is eight turnovers or less. Against a top-10 defense on Thursday, the Boilers only managed nine times.
And it felt like the Spartans scored at least two points on all of them. They actually only scored seven, but the 19-5 advantage in points off turnovers decided this game.
While this usually indicates live-ball turnovers leading to fast breaks, that wasn’t the case early on. Michigan State forced a five-second call on a Purdue inside play, then Fears converted a four-point play on half-court offense at the other end. Smith committed an offensive foul and Kur Teng followed with a 3 at the other end. Smith threw one down, and after the televised timeout less than four minutes in, Jaxon Kohler knocked down a 3.
Those 10 points in the first half explained why Purdue only led 39-36 at the break despite success in so many other areas.
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The losses came in the second half, fueling MSU’s surge. Cooper scoops up Smith’s pass and hits Fears for a driving layup. Kohler steals one from Kaufman-Renn and finds Teng for 3 more before the defense can reset. Teng grabs Jack Benter’s errant pass and throws an emphatic dunk to Coen Carr.
The latter capped a surge in which the Spartans turned a one-point deficit into a six-point lead. Their last basket after a turnover came with 10 minutes remaining, but the damage was done.
“If they’re 4-on-2, you’re against it, or 5-on-3, you’re against it,” Painter said. “But even at 3-on-3 and with Coen Carr in the equation, you’re dealing with it, because he’s not human.
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“You throw him that ball on the break like that and he’s there, you’re done. There’s nothing you can do.”
The conventional wisdom this season was that Purdue could have a no-shooting night as long as it took care of the ball, or a sloppier night as long as it kept the lights out. Well, he made 12 of 25 from 3-point range, with five players making at least two each.
Again, against a top-10 defense that had held opponents to a paltry 30.8 percent from behind the arc before Thursday.
Purdue did a lot of things very well and still couldn’t win on their home field. The phenomenon becomes more confusing when you consider all of Mackey’s victories – holding his own at Alabama, crushing Texas Tech in the Bahamas, avoiding a complete collapse and surviving Nebraska.
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Which set of results says more about what this Boilermakers team can accomplish in March? This will not remain an academic question for much longer.
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This article was originally published on the Indianapolis Star: Purdue’s basketball loss to Michigan State is different from home losses
